~ capturing my families' memories

Beach costumes

Carnival of Genealogy, 74th Edition is back by popular demand, the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: Swimsuit Edition! Why should Sports Illustrated have all the fun? This is your chance to show off the bathing beauties in your family…Let’s have some fun here!

When I think of old family photos, swimsuits and fun I instantly think of a particular series of ‘seaweed photos’ of my paternal Grandmother.

Seaweed has many natural health benefits for us including skin softening and stress release. I doubt that my great grandmother, grandmother and their friends really thought about it that way the day they went to the beach and used the seaweed fronds to make coverups for their swimsuits and complete their beach costumes. The photos I’m submitting for this 74th edition of COG clearly shows us the bathing suits of late 1930’s and one way to use the natural stress relieving qualities of seaweed by having fun, laughing and smiling. See for yourself the benefits of seaweed…did looking at it make you smile too?

I wonder whose idea it was to make their designer beach costumes? I doubt that sewing was an essential skill that day but my great grandmother Maude Rury was an accomplished seamstress, owning a sewing shop while she lived in Arizona and by 1936 working as a seamstress in San Diego, California. Maude’s oldest daughter, Ottie, recalled:

Mother was real handy to sew and she bought a Singer machine and it was a treadle machine when we moved to Guthrie in 1913. She could just take old clothes and turn them and wash them and she could make us girls lots of coats and dresses and things because she could sew so well.

My grandmother Ottie was also good at making all kinds of things that involved sewing or crocheting. I do not know what skill sets the other two ladies brought to the group. However, they all brought their sense of fun that day. This must have been a team effort and they are obviously enjoying themselves trying to synchronize their leg kicks, pose all the while releasing any stress they may have had.

In trying to narrow down when these photos were taken, below are other ‘seaweed photos’ that may have been taken at the same time and have other people in them.

Here are a few facts that may help narrow the timeline down:

1934 Maude was a registered voter in San Diego, California before that she lived in Arizona

1935 Nadine was attending Central High School in Oklahoma City, OK and was possibly living with her sister Ottie

1938 my Dad was born in January (so that might not be the year that my grandparents would travel to California)

1938 Maude and Nadine are registered voters living together in San Diego, California

1938 Nadine married Langford in November in Santa Ana, California

1939 I have a photo showing my Dad as a toddler, maybe about 1 1/2 years old, wading in the ocean with his aunt’s assistance

1939 Clarence was 17 years old

If the photo with Clarence was taken at the same time it was likely a different day because my grandmother seems to have a different swimsuit on, it has different straps. So, playing dressup with seaweed fronds may have been a tradition for beach fun undoubtably due to its natural stress relieving properties.

Thank you,Kay, for these great photographs. Having played with seaweed in such a manner, these photographs immediately bring to mind the awful smell. Something about the artful way in which they have draped the seaweed fronds into costumes made me wonder if they had something in mind. I found this great photograph of Jessie Bond as Iolanthe in Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera of the same name, and this description in the associated Wikipedia article:
“Summoned by the Fairy Queen, Iolanthe rises from the frog-infested stream that has been her home in exile.”
Although originally performed in the 1880s, it continued to be performed in the D’Oyly Carte touring repertory for almost a century. Perhaps they had recently been to see it …. 🙂

That is fascinating to think about! I certainly agree that they didn’t just throw the fronds over them, they spent time to make them look more like a costume. I wish we could know the story behind the photo but maybe they did have the Iolanthe in mind. Thank you for visiting and sharing your thoughts with me.

I gasped at the first photo, but then quickly worked up a grin as I thought about how much fun they must’ve had with the seaweed. Sure is slimy stuff though. Love how you’ve woven the story with the images!

Welcome!

Delving into family stories, documents and photos is what I enjoy! Relative Storyboard: capturing family memories, is my blog where I share and encourage discussion about my findings. Often I only have tidbits of information that I piece together in hopes that one day I'll have a more complete storyboard.
I hope you find something of interest and I need your comments, if you do. So, if you have questions or if we share an ancestor I really want to hear from you. Leave me a comment or contact me at kayzie31 at gmail.com.